Pearl
by St Elmo's Fire
Summary: A novelization of Pearl that is terrible and abandoned.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Nintendo does, however. Not that you don't know this, of course. If I owned pokemon, there would be more legendaries, pokemon would be easier to catch, you would not have to go to a special pokemon party in Japan to get Mew, and the pokemon would be either total crack, stupid-looking, or look so cool they actually looked idiotic. Anyway, let's get to what you really came here for.

* * *

"Despite the exploration team's best efforts, however, the rare, oddly colored pokemon eluded detection. The rumored red gyarados failed to appear, even fleetingly, to the crestfallen team…" said the TV. "That concludes our special report, 'Search for the Red Gyarados!'" Elliot got up off his peach colored, pink-trimmed rug (part of his mother's inscrutable decorating scheme) and turned the TV off. He had just been watching one of his favorite TV shows. Elliot had always been interested in rare, unknown pokemon, and tuned in every week to watch another search attempt, unbothered that they nearly always ended with no discovery. He walked over the dark colored wood of his floor, pacing in excitement. He looked at the large bonsai in the corner, one of his mother's many plants that dotted the house, then turned and started back, eyes catching on his wii console by the TV, wii remote sitting ready next to it with a worn strap, then his computer, with the start of a school report on it. He could make out the words as he approached.

**Pokemon Basics**, read his title. **People live alongside pokemon in this world. The people who battle pokemon are called pokemon trainers.** That was as far as he'd gotten.

He felt antsy and decided to head out. As he walked downstairs, he glanced at a little paper he had hung on the wall.

"The X button opens the menu!" was written on it. Elliot had hung it there to make him laugh every morning. It was a quote from a video game NPC. Elliot thought it was funny to have something like that in real life. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, his mom ran over to him.

"Huh? What is it, Mom?"

"Tom came calling for you a little while ago. I don't know what it was about, but he said it was an emergency," she said.

"Yeah, that's Tom all right," said Elliot, smiling. His mom smiled back. Elliot's mom had dark blue-green hair, with a small pink hairclip in it. Before he left, Elliot headed into the kitchen to grab a snack. The kitchen was spotless, and was so shiny you could see your face in the floor. Mom liked to try and keep it that way. Mom's favorite dessert, custard pie, was in the fridge, as well. Elliot left that alone.

"Don't keep him waiting!" she said.

Elliot nodded and started to the door. As Elliot was about to leave, his mom called him.

"Elliot, don't go in the tall grass. Wild pokemon might fight you. It would be okay if you had your own pokemon, but you don't, so…" Elliot nodded.

"I know, mom. I'll be careful." Elliot said as he walked out the door.

Next to his house was a red mailbox with a painted ceramic sign attached, written by Elliot when he was younger, saying "Elliot's house." The house itself was two stories high, with a green roof. Tom's house, a little ways off, looked the same, right down to a similar sign under the mailbox. They'd both made them in crafts at school. Right as Elliot reached the front door of Tom's house, it was yanked open and Tom came rocketing out to crash into Elliot.

"What was that about?! Oh, hey Elliot! Hey, I'm going down to the lake! You come too, and be quick about it! Okay, Elliot? I'm fining you 1 million pen if you're late!" Tom said to Elliot.

"Whoa, Tom, wait-" Elliot started to say, but Tom was already taking off. He stopped suddenly, shouted "Oh jeez! Forgot something!" then turned around and ran back in the house. Elliot sighed and walked in after him. Tom's mother turned to look at him.

"Oh, hi, Elliot. Are you looking for Tom? He was gone for a second, but then he came running back here. He just can't sit still, that boy. I wonder who he takes after?" she said.

Elliot shrugged and walked up the steps to Tom's room. Tom's house was much like Elliot's, with bonsai in the corners and a peach-colored rug in the center. Up in Tom's room, Tom was looking through his things.

"…I'd better take my bag and journal, too…" Elliot heard him saying. Tom noticed him and turned to look at him. "Oh, hey, Elliot? We're going to the lake! I'll be waiting on the road! It's a 10 million pen fine if you're late!" Tom zoomed past Elliot and down the stairs.

"Hey, wait up!" Elliot said. But Tom was already out of the house. Elliot sighed and looked around. Tom's room looked very much like his own, right down to having a document open on the computer screen. Tom seemed to have some sort of videogame walkthrough up rather than a report, though, as it said **Adventure Rule No. 1 The X button opens the menu. Adventure Rule No. 2 Record your progress with SAVE. **It looked like it was a walkthrough for the same game Elliot had the quote from. Hadn't Tom played it before? It must have been his first time. He couldn't stay long, though. Elliot went downstairs. Tom's mom turned to him again.

"That kid rocketed off again like usual. I'd guess he would be on Route 201 by now." She said.

"Yeah," Elliot commented before opening the door.

Right at the edge of Twinleaf before Route 201 began, Matt, another of Elliot's friends, came up to Elliot and said,

"Hiya, Elliot. You're looking for Tom?"

"Yeah. He said he was going to Route 201." Elliot replied.

"Well, he just went tearing off a little while ago. He's probably not gone too far. Why not go chase after him?"

"I guess I'll have to," Elliot said as he ran over the grass to Route 201. Tom was waiting there for him, for once.

"Hey, you saw that news report that was on TV, right? You know, 'Search for the Red Gyarados, the mysterious appearance of a furious pokemon in a lake!' That show got me to thinking. I'll bet our local lake has a pokemon like that in it, too! So that's what we're gonna do. We'll go find a pokemon like that." Tom said, grinning.

"Whoa, wait, Tom. Those guys were looking because there were reports of one there, and even then they couldn't find it. Besides, those guys were trained experts!" Elliot said.

As if he hadn't heard, Tom shouted, "All right, then! Let's move out! Hustle up!" Tom did that a lot.

Tom rocketed off once again, leaving Elliot far behind. Elliot walked a bit further up the path, where it split into two directions, the one on the left leading to Lake Verity. Annoyed at Tom, he started down the right path, but hadn't gotten far before he was confronted by a large patch of tall grass that covered the whole of the path. He could almost hear his mother's voice saying "Elliot, don't go in the tall grass. Wild pokemon might fight you. It would be okay if you had your own pokemon, but you don't, so…" After a moment of thought, Elliot turned back and started down the left path to follow Tom.

Elliot met up with Tom at the sign for Lake Verity, where there was a gap in the normally tightly packed trees allowing for a path beneath their branches. The sign read simply "Lake Verity – Lake of Emotions".

"All right! To the lake!" shouted Tom, seeing him approach. "Let's find us a red gyarados!"

Tom happily went further on the path into Lake Verity. As soon as he'd taken a few steps, he said,

"What's going on…?"

"Huh? Tom, let me see." Elliot said. Tom moved aside.

Near the shore of the lake was a man with a bit messy, long silver hair–which reminded Elliot slightly of Sephiroth, the FFVII villain–standing next to a teenage girl with a white hat. They were standing fearlessly in some tall grass, and Elliot wondered if they were trainers.

Elliot could just barely hear them speaking. "Professor, there isn't anything out of the ordinary on the other side, either!" the girl said. What were they talking about? Elliot leaned a little further to catch their words.

"Hmm…" said the professor, staring out over the water. "I may have been mistaken…something appears to be different then it was before, but…Fine! It's enough that we have seen the lake." He turned to the girl. "Dawn, we're leaving," he said curtly. As the professor turned to leave, Dawn turned to him and asked,

"Professor, how are you enjoying being back in Sinnoh? After being away for four years, it must be exciting again?"

The professor hesitated a moment before replying.

"…Hmm. There is one thing I can say. There are many rare kinds of pokemon in Sinnoh. The region should serve us well in regards to our studies."

The professor and Dawn walked up to Elliot and Tom, still standing in the middle of the pathway out.

"Excuse me, let us pass, please," the professor said.

"Uh, yes, sir," Elliot said, stepping aside. The professor and Dawn walked back toward Route 201.

"What was that about? These two…" Tom said as soon as they were out of earshot. He turned back to the lake, toward the place where the professor was standing. "Huh? Elliot, let's go check this out!"

"No! Wait! My mom said not to go into tall grass!" Elliot cried out.

"But…wait, I mean my mom, you know, I…She says…"

"What's that? Don't go into the tall grass? No problem, no problem!" Tom said, smiling confidently. "We won't be in there long enough for a wild pokemon to come out."

"Okay…" Elliot said uncertainly.

They walked up to where the professor was standing. It looked like he had dropped his briefcase.

"It's…a briefcase?" Tom said, picking it up. "Those people forgot it here. What are we supposed to do with it? We can try to deliver it, but who are they? I heard them say 'professor'…"

They stood there another second, and suddenly two large grey and white birds came flying out at them from the trees.

"Waaa! P-pokemon?!" Tom yelled.

"They look like starly! I told you this was a bad idea!" Elliot yelled back.

Startled, Tom dropped the briefcase and it popped open. There were many papers in it, as well as three pokeballs that rolled about inside from the drop.

"Look!" said Tom. "These are pokeballs! Let's battle using these!"

* * *

Author's Note: I am actually _not _replaying the game to write this story. Yes, this is my first playthrough, so no spoilers please. Tell me what you think of the story. Almost all NPC dialogue is taken directly from the game, with a few slightly edited. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Nintendo does, however. Not that you don't know this, of course. If I owned pokemon, there would be more legendaries, pokemon would be easier to catch, you would not have to go to a special pokemon party in Japan to get Mew, and the pokemon would be either total crack, stupid-looking, or look so cool they actually looked idiotic. Anyway, let's get to what you really came here for.

* * *

"Look!" said Tom. "These are pokeballs! Let's battle using these!"

Elliot started to stammer something out, but Tom said over him, "Eh…? Which one do you want then?"

Casting a nervous glance at the two pokemon that had surrounded them, letting out little growls, Elliot leaned down and grabbed the rightmost pokeball and threw it. It burst open and a blue pokemon, also somewhat birdlike, jumped out, letting out a cry Elliot couldn't quite make out. It had an even larger round head than the starly and tiny, clearly useless wings, perhaps because it was a baby. Elliot wasn't sure, though. He didn't recognize what kind of pokemon it was, although it seemed young.

"Uh…pokemon! Use pound!" Elliot said. The blue pokemon jumped up and pounded the starly with one stubby wing-arm, sending her tumbling with the force. The starly flapped her wings to right herself then growled fiercely, and Elliot's pokemon looked a little scared, taking a step back nervously. Elliot told it to use pound again, and it did so but hesitated and hit somewhat less forcefully. The starly growled again.

Despite her small growls, the starly looked battered, and had clearly taken a lot of damage from those two hits. "Use pound again, Pokemon! This should knock it out!" Elliot's pokemon pounded the starly again, but far less powerfully, and she didn't faint. The growls must have weakened its attacks a great deal. Still, she didn't look like she could hold out much longer. She finally tried to tackle the blue pokemon protecting Elliot, but bounced off its deceptively frail looking body, causing barely any damage. Elliot's pokemon used pound one more time, and the starly fainted. Elliot looked around, and saw Tom had finished off his starly, as well. Elliot didn't recognize Tom's pokemon, either. It looked like a green turtle, but had a tiny branch on top of its head with two leaves attached to either side. It looked a bit worse than Elliot's pokemon after the battle, but was still in okay condition.

The pokemon by his feet chirped a more understandable "Piplup!" at him. So that was what it was. Looking more closely at the piplup, Elliot decided it was a male. Elliot grinned. He felt happy that it was a boy, like him.

"Fwaaah! Your piplup totally rocked! But my turtwig was way tougher than yours! …They were other people's pokemon, though…but we had to use them…they won't mind, will they?" said Tom.

Elliot put the piplup back in the pokeball regretfully. He'd forgotten that it wasn't really his for a moment.

"I hope not," Elliot said.

Dawn came rushing towards them, and looked at the briefcase.

"Oh! There's the briefcase! The professor would have been furious if I'd lost it!" she said. She looked in the briefcase, seeing the missing pokeballs.

"Huh? Oh, no!" Dawn turned to Tom and Elliot.

"Did you…did you use the pokemon in here?" she said frantically. Tom and Elliot nodded their heads guiltily.

"You did?! Oh my gosh! What's the professor going to say…? …This is so not good…I'll take the briefcase for now." Dawn scooped up the briefcase and ran off into the trees again.

"What was that all about?" Tom said. "I don't know what's going on. Elliot, let's get out of here. My pokemon got hurt from that battle. If we get attacked by another pokemon, we might be in trouble."

"Mine didn't get hurt much, but…yeah, we should go back." Elliot replied.

Tom and Elliot went back through the opening in the trees and back down Route 201.

"You go up ahead…" Tom said. "…I know we have to return these pokemon. They're not ours. But I want to spend just a little more time with this little guy…" Tom opened up his pokeball and looked at Turtwig sadly. The pokemon seemed to noticed he was worried, and walked up to him, crying, "Turtwig!" Elliot let his piplup out as well. They did look awfully cute. Elliot wished he could keep his. But still, they needed to be returned…

"All right, then. Let's see if we can catch up with those people." Elliot said, recalling Piplup.

"Yeah," Tom said, recalling his turtwig as well.

Despite what they said, the two found themselves walking a lot more slowly back than they had come.

When they got close to the entrance to Twinleaf Town, they saw that the professor and Dawn were standing on the path ahead of them, talking. As Tom and Elliot approached, they noticed and stopped abruptly, turning to Tom and Elliot.

"Hey, it's those people! Is that old guy staring at us?" Tom whispered to Elliot.

"Shhh! Quiet!" Elliot whispered back.

The "old guy" walked up to them.

"Hmm…I heard from Dawn you used our pokemon?" he said.

"Uh…yeah…" Elliot said hesitantly.

"Let me see them, please."

Elliot and Tom hesitantly handed over their pokeballs. The professor opened them. The pokemon looked at him, then Elliot and Tom, looking confused. The professor looked down at the pokemon.

"Hm…piplup and turtwig…hmm…I see…that's how it is…" he mumbled.

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Elliot.

"Dawn!" shouted the professor, ignoring him. "I'm going back to my lab!"

He recalled the pokemon and handed them back to Elliot and Tom, who were still confused from his strange mutterings. The professor then walked over to the right side of the path.

"Um…Yes! Professor, please wait for me!" Dawn called. She quickly turned to Elliot and Tom. "I think you should visit our lab later. Okay, see you!" She waved at them, then ran toward the professor.

"What was all that craziness about? I mean, if he was angry, he could've just yelled at us, or whatever…and didn't he want their pokemon back?" Tom said quizzically. Elliot shrugged.

"I didn't understand anything, either…does this mean we get to keep our pokemon?" he said.

"I guess…" Tom said. "Let's go home, Elliot." Elliot nodded and walked toward Twinleaf.

* * *

Author's Note: Compared to the last chapter, this is pretty short, but I thought this would be a good place to end the chapter. I'll try to catch up to where I am in the game (Floarama Town) so I'll try to get chapter three and four up as soon as possible. Good merf to you :) 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Nintendo does, however. Not that you don't know this, of course. If I owned pokemon, there would be more legendaries, pokemon would be easier to catch, you would not have to go to a special pokemon party in Japan to get Mew, and the pokemon would be either total crack, stupid-looking, or look so cool they actually looked idiotic. Anyway, let's get to what you really came here for.

* * *

Elliot walked down the path to his house. What the professor had said was confusing him. Didn't he want his pokemon back? Elliot decided to just go home for now. He walked up the small steps and into his house. Elliot saw his mom in the kitchen. 

"Uh, Mom? I need to talk to you," he said to her.

"Okay, honey," Elliot heard her say.

She walked into the living room and said, "What's up, dear?"

"The ceiling," he replied without thinking. His mother gave him a look.

"Well…" Elliot hesitated for a moment then told her what had happened.

His mother listened, then smiled.

"Wow, I can't believe that happened to you," she said at last, "Am I ever glad that both you and Tom are unharmed. The professor you mentioned is probably Professor Rowan of Sandgem Town. I've heard he is well known for his studies on pokemon. I have also heard he is quite intimidating…" She paused briefly, "Elliot, I think you need to visit him in Sandgem Town. You need to properly explain why you had no choice but to use his pokemon. Don't worry!" she added when Elliot started to say something. "I'm sure he will understand," she told him, then suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, I know! Elliot, put these on," she handed him a pair of what looked like running shoes. "Going to Sandgem Town is like an adventure in itself, right? With these running shoes you can get to faraway places much faster. Okay…" She helped Elliot put them on. "The package says, 'Put on the running shoes and blaze new trails of adventure!' Well isn't that just nifty." Elliot's mom said, smiling. Elliot smiled back, then went out the door. He ran up to Route 201, enjoying the new feel of the shoes, then realized he hadn't seen Tom for a while. He did see Matt nearby and walked over to him.

"Hi, Matt. Have you seen Tom recently?" Elliot asked.

"Tom? He went tearing off in a huge rush a while ago." Matt said.

"Thanks!" Elliot yelled as he ran off.

At Route 201, Tom was nowhere to be found. Elliot went left at the fork, wondering if he was at Lake Verity. He went through the path between in the trees and looked out over the lake, but no one was there. Sighing, Elliot went back to the fork. He had his own pokemon now, so he could go into the tall grass without worry. There was another trainer going on the same path he was.

"Hey, trainer," he said. "do you want me to tell you how to catch a pokemon?"

"Uh…sure," Elliot said. Catching pokemon was one of the best things about being a pokemon trainer. He always wanted to know how it was done.

"Okay," said the other trainer, "you can only catch wild pokemon, which means you'll want to look in tall grass or caves. You want to weaken it as much as you can without knocking it out, because if a pokemon is still healthy, it can break out of the pokeball. I can't give you any, but there's a pokemart up ahead. You can buy pokeballs there if you want."

Elliot smiled. "Thanks!" he said.

"You're welcome," said the other trainer.

Suddenly, a starly that was eating some bugs in the tall grass jumped out and attacked Elliot. It was a low-level female, like the one that had attacked him before.

"Speak of the devil!" Elliot exclaimed as he tossed Piplup's pokeball. It burst open and Piplup came out with a small "Piplup!"

"This is another starly, so…Piplup, try pound!" Piplup obediently pounded the starly with his wing-arm. The starly chirped and was sent backwards a bit from the force. When it righted itself again, it growled before Elliot could order another command. Piplup stepped back fearfully, but then shook it off and stepped forward again.

"So it's trying that tactic, huh?" Elliot said, "Quickly, Piplup! Pound!" Piplup jumped up and whacked the starly away again. It flew back, but tried to tackle Piplup this time. However, the previous attack seemed to have dazed it a bit, and Piplup was able to dodge.

"Now, Piplup! Pound again!" Piplup pounded the starly again before it could recover and it seemed he hit her with extra force, as the pokemon fainted. Piplup chirped happily at this victory.

"Good job, Piplup!" Elliot congratulated, smiling. Piplup smiled as well and Elliot recalled him.

Elliot walked down the path some more, and his travels were uneventful. He reached the edge of the patch of tall grass, and the path sloped upward. Elliot climbed up, then turned to his left. He noticed that the path led to Verity Lakefront. That wasn't the way he was going, so he went back. He went down the slope again, and continued on the path. On his left was a small sign. On it was written**, "Trainer Tips: talk to everyone you meet!"**

_How odd. Mom always told me not to talk to strangers..._ Elliot thought. He shrugged and continued on the path. To his left was a large patch of tall grass, but he decided to keep going. The path ended in a ledge which he could not climb, however. Elliot sighed and went back to the patch of tall grass. He ran upwards, noticing it sloped a bit. He didn't see any other pokemon, but at the top he found another trainer by the edge of the trees.

Remembering the sign's suggestion, Elliot went over to talk to him and found out he was a pokemart worker. He gave Elliot a potion as a free sample.

Elliot thanked him and put the purple bottle with a spay nozzle at the top in his bag happily. Now he'd be able to heal Piplup if anything happened. With that done, he continued on his way.

The patch of tall grass ended abruptly, and Elliot noticed that he was on the ledge that he saw before. Not able to resist the urge, he jumped off the short ledge. It was a little exciting. Elliot ran up to the ledge again and continued toward Sandgem Town this time. Upon entering, Elliot noticed a large, hi-tech looking building. Dawn was standing at the entrance.

"Oh! There you are!" she exclaimed. "Please, come with me! The professor's waiting!" she grabbed Elliot's hand and started pulling him towards the lab.

"Hey, Dawn, wait-" Elliot began, but Dawn ignored him.

"This is it!" Dawn said when Elliot was in front of the lab. Elliot looked up at the strange building. "This is our pokemon research lab! Let's go…" Dawn said, walking toward the door. Elliot followed. Suddenly, however, Tom came running out of the door and slammed into Elliot…just like at Twinleaf.

"What the…" Tom began, then his expression softened. "Oh, it's you Elliot! That old guy…he's not so scary so much as he is totally out there!"

Elliot saw Dawn fight back a scowl.

"Uh…really?" Elliot said hesitantly, frowning a bit. Tom laughed.

"Aww, it doesn't matter, Elliot! I'm out of here. See you later!"

Tom then ran off further into Sandgem.

"Wow, what was that?" Dawn said. Elliot shrugged, not sure what to say. "Your friend seems to be really impatient."

"Yeah, that's Tom all right." Elliot replied.

"Well, anyway…let's go inside," Dawn said. She grabbed Elliot again and led him inside the lab. Professor Rowan was standing at the back. Elliot saw a few other professors as Dawn led him to where Rowan was standing.

"Hi, Professor!" Dawn said. "This is Elliot, from Twinleaf Town. Remember him?"

"Ah, yes," Rowan said. "Let me see your pokemon again, Elliot,"

Elliot nodded awkwardly, then handed over Piplup's pokeball. Professor Rowan opened it and carefully looked at Piplup thoroughly, muttering things like "Hmm…" and "I see…" finally, he looked back at Elliot.

"This pokemon seems rather happy," Rowan said to Elliot. "All right, then. I'll give this piplup to you as a gift."

Dawn gasped, and Elliot was shocked.

"P-professor, you can't be serious!" she said.

Rowan turned to her. "I _am_ serious, Dawn. This pokemon has grown to like him in the short time it has been with him. I think it should stay with him. Besides, it would help for what I have planned."

Elliot looked at him quizzically, and Dawn seemed to remember something and said, "Oh, yes, that."

Rowan turned back to Elliot.

"You friend Tom told me what happened at the lake," he said. "You battled very well, despite it being your first time. And, from what I can see, there is a growing bond between you and that pokemon, though it is still young. That's why I would like to entrust you with Piplup."

Dawn blushed a bit, then said, "I'm so glad you're kind towards pokemon! If you weren't, I'd have to…oh, I just can't say it…"

Professor Rowan cleared his throat loudly. "Let's move on to the main topic," he said, cutting off Dawn. "There is something I want you to do for me. First of all, I want to know exactly what kinds of pokemon live in the Sinnoh region. To do so, it is necessary to collect data, using the pokedex. This is what I wish to ask of you. I want to entrust you with this pokedex. Will you use it to record data on all the pokemon in Sinnoh for me?"

"Of course!" Elliot said gladly. He was exited to be able to go and become a pokemon trainer. Rowan smiled at him.

"Hm!" he said. "Good answer!" he gave Elliot a strange, red, hi-tech looking device. "That pokedex is a very high-tech device. It will automatically record data on every kind of pokemon you encounter. Elliot, I ask that you go everywhere to meet every kind of pokemon in this region."

"I've got one, too!" Dawn added.

"Elliot, when you walked up route 201 with your pokemon, what did you feel?" Rowan asked.

"I…" Elliot paused as he searched for the right words. "I felt happy, I guess…it was a strange feeling, and I can't describe it very well, but…I felt glad that I was with a pokemon." Rowan smiled again.

"I've lived for 60 long years. Even now, I get a thrill when I'm with a pokemon." Rowan said slowly, then quickly spoke again, "Now, you should know that there are countless pokemon in this world. That means there are just as many thrills waiting for you out there. Now go! Elliot, your grand adventure begins right now."

Dawn turned to Elliot and said,

"I also help the professor add pages to the pokedex. So, in a sense, I'm just like you. I just got a head start on you, that's all. I'll be happy to teach you things. Glad to meet you, Elliot!"

"You too," Elliot said, smiling.

Dawn led Elliot out the door. Elliot was excited to start filling up his pokedex right away.

* * *

Author's Note: Wow, that's a lot of text…there shouldn't be as much text after this, though, so expect the chapters to get further in the story soon. Hopefully…it'll take a few chapters just to get Elliot's first badge…then there's Floarama Town and the Valley Windworks…sigh…expect me to level up my pokemon a bit while I'm waiting. (I expect Piplup to evolve very soon now…) 


End file.
